Salsa Salad with a Creamy Taco Dressing

I had been soaking my red lentils to sprout them, I love sprouted lentils in my salads. They are crispy and sweet, nutritious and very easy to sprout. As I was gathering my salad ingredients, my red lentils, and noticing all the cilantro in my refrigerator that I needed to use up before I go on vacation, I decided to make a salsa themed salad. It's no secret to those who know me that I LOVE fresh salsa, guacamole and Mexican food. I've been making fresh salsa and guac for years now and pretty much have it perfected to my taste. So... I chopped up my crunchy romaine, a beautiful red tomato, half of an avocado, stripped the leaves off the cilantro and threw them in my salad whole (I actually threw the stems in the blender, or you can dice the stems and toss them in the salad, to not waste that amazing cilantro flavor!), added some red pepper and my alfalfa & sunflower sprouts. As I was about to sprinkle on the lentils it hit me... so instead I threw them in the blender and with the addition of a few other ingredients.. voila... an oil free, dairy free, creamy raw "taco" dressing. It came out even better than I expected! The lentils give it a smooth creamy texture and lend their beany flavor, reminiscent of well... bean dip! This new dressing is will be an amazing sauce for lots of things, like wraps, as a veggie dip, it gives me a lot of ideas! I am going to attempt to make some garbanzo bean tortilla wraps soon too... This salad would also be really good with a few organic blue corn chips or my favorite Late July Sweet Potato corn chips, either on the side or crunched up over the top like croutons! (By the way these chips are extremely good! One of my indulgences that I don't feel too guilty about since they have really good simple ingredients!) (the dressing recipe makes enough for 2 large salads or around 4 smaller dinner salads)

Raw Taco Dressing:
1/4 cup sprouted red lentils
1/4 cup hulled hemp seed
1/2 cup filtered water
1 garlic clove
2 tsp real maple syrup
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1/4 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
cilantro stems

Toss all the ingredients into a blender and run until smooth and creamy. You can add more or less water for desired consistency. I have a blender with single serve smoothie cup attachments and those work perfect for dressings. Alternately you can used cooked red lentils if you don't mind the recipe being fully raw.

Salad:
1 handful romaine
1 handful red leaf lettuce
1 medium tomato cubed
1/2 of an avocado cubed
1 handful alfalfa sprouts
1 handful sunflower sprouts torn into bite size pieces
1 green onion diced
1 handful cilantro leaves
1/2 lime

Chop all veggies and toss in a bowl, squeeze lime juice over and toss, drizzle with dressing and eat!